Publicity Stunt Proposals: Ban ‘Em?

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The sanctity and beauty of marriage and everlasting love has once again been upheld to the highest standard. During the finale of the eleventh season of American Idol, two alumni from American Idol, Ace Young (Season 5) and Diana DeGarmo (Season 3), were brought up on stage, where Young delivered the most romantic marriage proposal to DeGarmo: “We have conquered Broadway together. We have created all your new music together. We have an amazing group of people around us, and with the help of David Webb Jewelry, I have a way to make this fun last forever.”

Ain’t it sweet folks? Wait… there are a few problems with this proposal, summed up excellently by Michael Buckley of WhattheBuck, which I will discuss here.

1. We have conquered Broadway together. Even though neither won American Idol (Ace came in 7th, and Diana was runner-up), they would like to remind the viewers that their careers have not completely tanked. However, this one is probably a sweet reference to their meeting while co-starring in the Broadway musical Hair, so I’ll let it slide.

2. We have created all your new music together. Sweet memory of all the bonding times they’ve shared, or subtle but shameless plug at upcoming albums by these two? I tend to lean towards the latter.

3. With the help of David Webb Jewelry. This one is neither subtle nor sweet. Who wants the name of the jeweler providing the engagement ring during a marriage proposal? If your prom date presented you with your corsage or boutonniere saying, “with the help of Baker Florist Shops, I present thee with this flower to be worn on this magical evening of dancing and delight,” would you be thrilled with that?

Now, I’m not saying these two aren’t actually in love or weren’t actually planning on getting married, whether it happened on the stage of American Idol or not. However, the not-so-casual reference to upcoming projects, the outright endorsement of a jewelry company in the middle of what is supposed to be a heartfelt, emotional declaration of love, and the overall publicity stunt nature of the proposal disgusts me.

Following my own personal values, if someone proposed to me like that, I would turn them down flat. I'd think that it was a disgusting publicity stunt. But hey, that's fine--just because I object to it doesn’t mean everyone else does. Maybe DeGarmo and Young decided they were willing to sacrifice a romantic, intimate proposal for the sake of a potential career boost. Their publicity stunt proposal in no way affects my future marriage proposal.

These two are not in any way the only ones guilty of a publicity stunt relationship (*cough*Bieber-Gomez*cough*). But it serves as another example of how the definition of marriage means different things to different people.Trying to shove two people into a mold of what you think marriage should be doesn’t work, in the same way that trying to shove the square block into the circular hole when you were in kindergarten didn’t work. I’m not going to call for the banning of publicity stunt marriages, or even call for a constitutional amendment against it. I don’t agree with it, I don’t think it’s right, but I won’t stop other people from having one; I just won’t have one myself. It’s as simple as that.